According to this Flyertalk thread you can receive Gold status in the Accor A|Club program by signing up for a new account using promotion code CMBANKACLUB. Accor Gold isn’t particularly rewarding, but as they say it’s better than a hole in the head if you’re going to stay at a Sofitel or other affiliated property anyway. Gold status is normally earned after 30 nights or 10,000 points accumulated in a year, and gets you 75% point bonus, guaranteed availability five days out, late checkout, and upgrade on arrival. The promo is likely marketed to customers of a partner (CM Bank?) and if they run the list of new Gold status members against an eligible customer list from the partner they may take the status away. So definitely your mileage may vary.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for January 2010.
Second Night Free at Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas
In addition to the Buy One Get One at Wynn and Encore, there’s also a Buy One Get One going on at Mandarin Oriental. Second night free when you book two nights, promo code is E1320531. Valid for stays through February 28. This is actually a hotel promotion, bookable by anyone. But you can book through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts to receive those additional amenities (room upgrade based on availability, daily breakfast for 2, $100 spa credit). You can also book via a Virtuoso agent to pick up amenities.
Priority Club First Quarter and Other Bonuses
Prompted by the release of Priority Club first quarter promos, Loyalty Traveller offers a rundown and points to the Flyertalk master thread on Priority Club promos for 2010. It’s always worth doing a checkup with that thread and registering for offers regularly, as Priority Club is one of the truly great programs out there for bonuses many of which you can double dip or even triple dip on which makes it special. For the first quarter offer you can register for the one that makes the most sense for your travels. (Registration for Priority Club promotions can be done at http://www.priorityclub.com/register. Enter your account information and the promotion code.) Through March 31, there are the following stay x nights, get a certain number of points: Stay 3, Get 5,000 – Code 1003 Stay 4, Get…
Czech Airlines Status Match Offer
On the continuing topic of status matches being offered by carriers around the world, and having mentioned one oneworld carrier (British Airways) and one Star Alliance carrier (Lufthansa), a reader sends me the offer from Czech Airlines (Skyteam). FIll in the application and send it along with a copy of your current elite card from a non-Skyteam airline, and — depending on where you’re reading in the offer details — “fly on one OK flight operated by Czech Airlines, purchased in any price package with the exception of Value Special and Click4sky” or “All you need to do is purchase a ticket for any OK flight operated by Czech Airlines (with the exception of the Value Special price package)..” In other words, unclear on whether you need to purchase a ticket or fly in order…
Buy One Get One Night at Wynn and Encore
Wynn and Encore in Las Vegas are offering first night free on a minimum two night stay through the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts program (for Platinum and Centurion cardmembers). You can only use the offer once, for a booking made by April 15 and stay through June 30. Standard American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts benefits apply. Promotion code is E1320542 and the offer can be booked at the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts online booking site. Flyertalk discussion of the deal is here.
Lufthansa Offers Status Match to Residents of Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Ukraine
Unlike the British Airways status match offer I posted yesterday, Lufthansa actually requires a paid roundtrip flight taken by February 28 before granting status, and the flights must be on Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, LOT Polish, Brussels Airlines, Croatia, or Adria Airlines. The very short application form (.pdf) needs to be completed and submitted along with a copy of your elite status card from a non-Star Alliance airline. Status will be valid through February, 2011. Lufthansa is another airline that doesn’t normally offer status matches, aside from the occasional offerings of a Star Alliance-wide matching program. So if you know anyone whose address you can borrow in Russia, Kazakhstan, or the Ukraine . . .
British Airways Offering Status Match to bmi Elites in Countries Losing bmi Service
British Airways very rarely offers status matches, but they’re currently offering to match bmi Diamond Club elites with addresses in Belgium, Israel, Ukraine, and the Netherlands — places that bmi is pulling out of servicing. Even British Airways Silver members get lounge access, including when flying on partners like American. And British Airways Gold members get access to British Airways first class lounges — even when they aren’t flying BA. This saved me one time in Milan, where Alitalia’s Boticelli lounge is one of the worst pits I’ve ever experienced (fortunately they had shower kits; unfortunately there was no hot water and the drain didn’t work and the line to get a coffee was 10 minuts long). If you have a bmi Gold card, this may be a good opportunity for a year of BA…
Join US Airways Dividend Miles, Fly 8 Segments, Earn 25,000 Miles
Via One Mile at a Time channeling TMTravelWorld, US Airways is offering 500 miles to new members who sign up and fly one segment in the first 90 days of membership and they’ll round up to a full 25,000 miles if you fly 8 segments in 90 days. If you’re going to short-hop around the Northeast or Southeast, it could be worthwhile ot credit to Southwest. Hard to imagine a reason to construct a mileage run just for this bonus (though for the right route and dates, 8 segments can be had pretty inexpensively in a single roundtrip). But for those flying anyway and perhaps otherwise traveling Delta without status this could be a winner.
American Not Honoring Qantas First Class Mistake Fare
The $550 each way Qantas first class tickets to Australia, sold as American Airlines codeshares, have a resolution. These were coach fares, pulled out of a discount economy fare buckets, that were mistakenly booking into first class. Apparently Qantas itself had been selling tickets similarly recently, and had been telling customers they had coach tickets and weren’t going to fly in anything but coach. American is taking a similar position. They are apparently providing the following options: 1) Buy F(irst class) for $12K, 2) Buy C(business class) for 4K, 3) Fly Y(coach) for fare paid, or 4) cancel. They’re also offering a $200 AA e-cert for the inconvenience. If you have accompanying non-refundable travel plans they’ll refund your out of pocket expenses. If you don’t accept an option they’ll select one for you which I…
If you wouldn’t mind…
This blog has been a labor of love since 2002. I know there’s a pretty dedicated fan base, a hard core group that I’ve helped to earn millions of frequent flyer miles, great upgrades, amazing discounts. I love you all, I really do. Perhaps the group that reads this blog will never reach beyond the hardcore. I don’t get more than 100,000 unique visitors in a month (I really don’t know how many folks read me via RSS feed). I’ll never be one of the ‘really popular’ blogs because I suppose I don’t write for a general audience. I don’t do the “5 Ways to Get Upgraded on Your Next Flight” pieces, where nearly everything in it is either (a) wrong or (b) too vague to be useful. Once in awhile I get 15 seconds of…
